A lot is riding on the success of Joe Johnston's Captain America film for Marvel studios. For a start, the movie is intended to be a launchpad for at least one Avengers movie, bringing together Ant-Man, Wasp, Thor, Iron Man, and The Hulk, as well as Steve Rogers himself. Its full title is The First Avenger: Captain America, and if it bombs at the box office, that's going to make taking things forward especially difficult for the comic book company's fledgling movie production arm.

Earlier this week, Latino Review reposted a Featurefilmcasting.com "synopsis" for the upcoming film, which is expected to start shooting in June. It will centre, as expected, on Rogers, Captain America's traditional alter-ego for almost all of the comic book's 69-year run.

The synopsis was later removed, apparently at Marvel's request, so we should perhaps take it with a pinch of salt, but nevertheless read as follows:

"Born during the Great Depression, Steve Rogers grew up a frail youth in a poor family. Horrified by the newsreel footage of the Nazis in Europe, Rogers was inspired to enlist in the army. However, because of his frailty and sickness, he was rejected.

"Overhearing the boy's earnest plea, General Chester Phillips offered Rogers the opportunity to take part in a special experiment … Operation: Rebirth. After weeks of tests, Rogers was at last administered the Super-Soldier Serum and bombarded by "vita-rays".

"Steve Rogers emerged from the treatment with a body as perfect as a body can be and still be human. Rogers was then put through an intensive physical and tactical training program. Three months later, he was given his first assignment as Captain America. Armed with his indestructible shield and battle savvy, Captain America has continued his war against evil both as a sentinel of liberty and as leader of the Avengers."

All of which sounds suitably close to the flavour of the original comic, although it looks likely that most of the movie will be set in the present day, rather than the 1940s, allowing Rogers to interact with other Marvel characters such as Robert Downey Jr's Iron Man and Ed Norton's The Hulk. Keen-eyed types will remember the segue in Iron Man in which Captain America's shield is seen in Tony Stark's workshop, as well as the deleted opening scene in The Incredible Hulk in which a figure is seen frozen in the arctic ice, along with that distinctive shield.

Add all that together and you've got a storyline in which Rogers is unfrozen, Austin Powers style, in 2010, following decades in suspended animation. Something very similar happened in the comic book series when Marvel decided to revive Captain America in the 1960s, and the storyline makes for a nice fish out of water set up, with the patriotic 40s icon having to adapt to life in modern day America.

Such a storyline would nicely sidestep the main issue with Captain America, which is that he is one of Marvel's hokiest and most antiquated characters, and one of the hardest to adapt into a persona that can appeal to 21st century audiences. Iron Man, which is by far the most successful of Marvel's outings as a studio (Spider-Man is still owned by Sony), never felt like a story based on a character that was originated more than 50 years ago, and although much of this is down to the fact that Downey Jr doesn't really do retro-kitsch, credit also has to be given to director Jon Favreau for playing up the extremely current arms race politics angle of the comic book without coming over at all gung-ho. Captain America will need to do something similar if it's to avoid its slighty corny roots.

So far, it looks like a relative unknown will be getting the chance to play Rogers, which might well be for the best. Of those said to be in the running, I only recognise the name John Krasinski, aka Jim Halpert in the US version of The Office. Chace Crawford (Gossip Girl), Scott Porter, Mike Vogel (Cloverfield), Michael Cassidy (Smallville), and Patrick Flueger are reportedly the other names in the frame.

What are your thoughts on Captain America? Do you agree that the character needs an intelligent, considered updating if Steve Rogers is to make any sense in the new millennium? Or would you rather see a retro take? And who should play Rogers himself?